I look forward to the Minister’s end results of that discussion. I guess I’m going to ask what type of commitment he can make here in the House that he will get back to me and other Members who also have trappers in their regions that could possibly benefit from this type of discussion, and what type of numbers we are looking at.

I will have the department look into the possibilities of that right away and get the information to the Member, and we can move from there to discussing it possibly with committee and Cabinet.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Transportation. The Minister of Transportation is aware of the condition of roads leading to and from recreational properties along the Ingraham Trail. These leases have been in existence for almost

three decades. The roads from the properties to the trail traverse federal Crown lands. In many cases the roads accessing these lots have fallen into disrepair. Since they aren’t an official part of the territorial road system, the GNWT doesn’t maintain them, at least not all of them. I realize this is a complicated situation of jurisdictions, but for the record, could the Minister state the territorial policy regarding maintenance of these roads?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Transportation, Mr. David Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We only maintain roads that are included in the NWT highway regulations. Those are the only roads that the Department of Transportation maintains.

I know that includes some exceptions to the general rule. For example, into Prelude East and so on that are clearly Crown land. The reality is here, however, territorial citizens and residents have cabins with long-term leases. After devolution we will adopt responsibility for these lands and land routes, bringing forward the issue of incorporating the roads into the official road system and beginning to maintain them. Obviously, a modicum of support now would go a long ways to avoiding further deterioration in roads we will inherit. Can the Minister tell us that he will begin dialogues with residents to proactively deal with this emerging issue?

As we move forward with devolution, that will ultimately be a discussion that we will have to have, but certainly as it stands today, those roads that the Member talks about in his riding aren’t roads the Department of Transportation maintains. Is there a way that we can try to bridge that gap between now and when devolution does come in? There’s a possibility we could sit down with the Member and residents to discuss how that will happen, but we’re going to have to find some dollars between now and then to make that happen.

I appreciate the Minister’s commitment there. These are modest dollars, I’ll note right away. Although federal leases to property improvements on these lots are taxable land improvements relative to services provided, the tax revenues are a windfall to the GNWT. Once these leaseholders become territorial tenants surrounded by territorial lands, we can reasonably expect they will be seeking an increased degree of territorial services given the taxes they pay.

In preparation for devolution, has the Department of Transportation begun working with other departments such as MACA to consider the new costs and infrastructure requirements that will arise from the adoption of new lands and taxpayers?

The issue the Member talks about in his riding is not an issue that is only taking place in and around Yellowknife; it’s also an issue in other locations throughout the Northwest Territories. It’s an item that we have to pay attention to as we move towards devolution, and we do, certainly, discuss that item with MACA. We need to come up with a way to move this whole thing forward. We certainly intend to do that by working with MACA. Of course, the landscape is going to change post-devolution and we understand that, and we need to ensure that we are coordinating our approaches to deal with that as it all moves forward.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks for the comments from the Minister. These leaseholders are a hardy bunch with a record of considerable work to maintain these access roads. Unfortunately, they lack the heavy duty equipment and volume of materials rarely needed but critical to replace, say, a culvert or deal with the consequences of major weather events.

Does the Minister think investing a few hours with a caterpillar or a few loads of gravel would go a long ways towards supporting our residents and preventing greater costs down the road?

As I mentioned, if you do it for one, you’ve got to do it for everybody. There are a number of kilometres of highway or road in the Northwest Territories where folks understand that the Department of Transportation does not have responsibility for maintaining those roadways. It’s an issue that as we move devolution forward, we will have to pay attention to, and certainly, like I said earlier, the landscape is going change and we’re aware of that.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. I’d like to follow up on a statement that I made a little while ago with regard to some sports being dropped from the 2016 Arctic Winter Games. At the time, the Minister had just come back from a meeting with some of his other counterparts. He had met with the Arctic Winter Games International Committee. There was a certain amount of publicity around the whole dropping of sports issue, and there was publicity in the media as well.

I would like to know from the Minister at this point, considering there was publicity, considering it is an issue that is of concern to quite a few Northerners, I

would like to know if the Minister has heard from the sport governing bodies, the territorial sport organizations for the five sports that were dropped for 2016.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.

We had the opportunity to meet with the presidents of the affected sports organizations. It was a very productive meeting. They had expressed their concerns on the sports that were excluded from the games. We had committed to them that we were going to have a meeting again with the Arctic Winter Games International Committee again this spring to look at the options that the Arctic Winter Games International Committee has come up with, and compare them to our options to see if we can find some common ground. It was a very productive meeting, and they had many good suggestions from the territorial sports organizations.

Thanks to the Minister for the information. I guess I would like to know, and I imagine many of the people who might hear this, our conversations in the House, would also like to know, what some of the options are that have been presented by these sports to give their kids, their athletes an opportunity for a major event in 2016.

Due to the lack of facilities in the host community in 2016, the six sports that were dropped, some of the options that we came up with – and it’s a discussion we had with the Arctic Winter Games International Committee – is possibly having a satellite location where these six affected sports would have an opportunity to compete as Arctic Winter Games athletes, and flying the Arctic Winter Games colours and using the Arctic Winter Games uniforms. The TSOs had suggested that would be their main priority, is to ensure our kids have the Arctic Winter Games experience and that’s one that we will be presenting to the Arctic Winter Games International Committee. They are aware of that and they are following up with that, also, to see if there’s some way we can make it happen.

Thanks to the Minister. That’s really good to hear. I think the sports that have been dropped, that they have an opportunity to be a part of the Arctic Winter Games, even if it’s in a different jurisdiction, is a great thing. I hope the Minister follows up and pushes for that, which I think is what I’m hearing from him.

My question goes to the hockey that’s going to be held in 2016. At the moment, from what I understand, there will be two divisions of hockey held in Iqaluit. Midget hockey will be held maybe someplace else. I’d like to ask the Minister if it’s on the radar for the sports Ministers that hockey, all

three divisions, be held in the same place or are they going to keep them split.

The bantam hockey and female hockey will be held in Iqaluit. That was an agreement that the host society had made with Iqaluit. One of the suggestions that we made during our meeting with the TSOs is if we were to have hockey as part of our satellite games, then we would like to see all divisions of hockey, whether it be in Iqaluit or any other jurisdiction, but we would like to see all divisions of hockey be held at the same time as the other sports that have been excluded. They’re very receptive to that, and that would be their preference also.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I’m really glad to hear that hockey will be all together. I think that only makes sense.

My last question is a statement, I suppose, a comment to the Minister. I hope that he will keep the pressure on, and with the other sports Ministers that he’s already working with that he will keep the pressure on the Arctic Winter Games International Committee, and I would ask him if he could keep us up to date as things progress in the spring.

One of the concerns we heard from the TSOs was the fact that they’d be losing almost six years of development as far as our young athletes go. This may affect some of their funding also. We have to recognize that and we have to ensure that we don’t lose this group of athletes.

As far as the hockey goes, they have an agreement with Iqaluit to host those two events. We would like to have all hockey events in the same location if we do have a satellite game. We are in regular contact with our counterparts in Nunavut and the Yukon. They have the same concerns we have. Alaska and Northern Alberta have the same concerns we have.

I have committed to the TSOs that I would like to meet with them again before my spring meeting and after my spring meeting, and I will continue to keep Members of the House updated as to the discussions that we have.